Sunday, January 25, 2009

"The Planned Parenthood Action Fund is proud to endorse Barack Obama for president of the United States. He is a passionate advocate for women's rights, and has a long and consistent record of standing up for women's health care. As president, he will improve access to quality health care for women, support and protect a woman's right to choose, support comprehensive sex education to keep our young people healthy and safe, and invest in prevention programs, including family planning services and breast cancer screenings." - statement released by Planned Parenthood, July 2008

Barack Obama is only the second presidential candidate endorsed by Planned Parenthood; yes, you guessed it, the first was Hilary Clinton. I don't know how much PP gave the Obama campaign, but I am sure it was in the millions. I guess he owes them, big time!

People who are active in pro life issues, know that this new President of the USA is bad news for the pro life cause. And there are a zillion articles on this, if you need a list, let me know - I can send you links to many.

I am waiting for video coverage of the March for Life in Washington last Thursday to be uploaded to LifeSiteNews - I have seen some coverage on YouTube, but it is not very helpful in getting some idea of the scope of this march.

I heard from our president of Campaign Life Coalition here in Nova Scotia, that one black man in the march yelled "stop lying, we're dying". I wonder how many people know what he is referring to. In case you don't:

In the United States, 12% of the population is black, yet 34% of all abortions are performed on black women. This actually means that close to half of all black children are being aborted. So the real number of black people in America is diminishing. As well, for those who have surgical abortions, the chances of subsequent pregnancies being extremely premature is greatly increased, and the incidence of cerebral palsy increases dramatically with XPB (extremely pre-term birth, i.e. under 28 weeks gestation). American black women have very high rates of children born with CP, a direct result of the US abortion law.

"The most harrowing risk of an extremely pre-term birth (XPB) -- under 28 weeks gestation -- is cerebral palsy. The risk is about 38 times higher in XPB than in the overall newborn population. Sometimes XPB is just bad luck. Sometimes it isn't. According to obstetrician Barbara Luke's classic Every Pregnant Woman's Guide to Preventing Premature Birth, "If you have had one or more induced abortions, your risk of prematurity with this pregnancy increases about 30%." After two, a woman's chance of an XPB doubles. A woman who has had four or more abortions runs nine times the risk of XPB, an increase of 800%. Studies of black American women throw the problem into bold relief. Black American women, although only 12% of the American population, undergo 35.2% of all abortions. In 1987 it was reported in The New England Journal of Medicine that black American women with two previous abortions had a 91% higher relative risk of a subsequent pre-term birth. "- Barbara Kay, National Post

Does President Obama know this? surely someone has got these facts to him; in that case, why does he not care? Is he unaware that he is presiding over a black genocide in his own country?

“At the conclusion of your term in office, may it never be said that youpresided over the largest slaughter of innocent children in the history of the country and that African Americans became an ever increasing minority under your hand.” -Pastor Luke Robinson, Frederick, Maryland

It is incomprehensible to me that three days after Martin Luther King Day, he would lift the Mexico City Policy, a policy that will result in many more abortions in developing countries, as US tax dollars are funneled to organizations that promote abortion in the name of reproductive rights. And he has promised Planned Parenthood that he would sign FOCA, the Freedom of Choice Act. This act would open the flood gate to abortion throughout all nine months of pregnancy, it would lift the ban on partial birth abortion that Bush signed (and which Obama voted against three times), it would pay for abortions with tax dollars, it would remove the requirement for parental consent for abortions on girls under 16 years of age. Hey, wait, don't we already have all those things in Canada? I get it, the US wants to be more like us here in the North!

When Obama was elected, an elderly black woman in the grocery store asked me if I had seen any magazines with his picture on the cover. She wanted to buy one. I hadn't, and told her that the next week there would be many. She said "oh, there were some, but they have all been sold out". She was so happy to see a black man elected President of the USA; I wanted to say something, but thought why should I dispel her illusions? she is not of an age to be re-educated and, to her, Obama's election was an amazing thing to see in her lifetime. But I felt very sad, thinking that she and many others have been duped by this man, who seems to be more of a political animal than a man of Christian values. In the words of Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life: "President Obama doesn't know the difference between serving the people and killing the people."

Saturday, January 17, 2009

My husband and I have spent some time at the hospital today with a very dear old man, Mr. Pesche. He took a fall this morning in his house and it is not looking good. Michael Pesche is 97 years old, or as my husband likes to say affectionately to him "you are 100 minus 3". This always gets a smile out of Mr. Pesche.

We first met him two years ago, leaving an early morning Mass on a Saturday morning. He was walking home and we offered him a ride. We have been taking him to Mass every week since then. He is the sweetest old man we have met, and everyone who meets him can't help but like him. This is a tough old fellow, who just yesterday went to Canadian Tire on foot, pushing his shopping cart. The cart substitutes as a walker, and I think it helps Michael to retain his sense of independence and pride in his ability to manage on his own. Which he does very well, living in a three storey house, the second floor of which he rents out to students. He has been living on his own for over ten years now, since his wife died in his arms of an asthma attack.

There is so much to say about Mr. Pesche, and I only know a little. An immigrant from the Ukraine in 1921, coming to Alberta with his parents, then leaving Alberta for Nova Scotia with his wife on doctor's orders, since his allergies to ragweed were so bad that the only place to live in Canada was Nova Scotia. For some reason, our little province doesn't have much ragweed.Working as a commissioner in the Public Gardens, at a time when Russian sailors were visiting. One story he tells is when he met a sailor who wanted to defect and Mr. Pesche with the help of his boss, hid the Russian in the snack bar of the Gardens. When Russian KGB agents came around a few hours later to look for the man, Michael knew exactly what they were up to because he understood Russian fluently and they never suspected that the park commissioner was following them around the Gardens, listening to their every word. Later Michael and his boss got the sailor to the RCMP and I imagine the ending was a happy one for that man.

So back to the reason for this post. Michael was taken to the emergency department this morning by his neighbour and he was admitted to a private room about five hours later. He was unconscious upon arrival at the hospital and he has not regained consciousness, nor is he expected to. So we, along with other friends, are keeping a vigil at his bedside. The medical staff told us they don't expect him to last much more than a day, as he has fractured his skull and there is internal bleeding. He is on oxygen, but nothing else. No IV, no heart monitor; he has had drugs to eliminate any pain and also to help his breathing, so that his lungs do not fill up with fluid.

What I cannot comprehend is what do the nurses do? Michael's room is right across from the nursing station and his assigned nurse can be seen in her cubicle, writing on paper or talking on the telephone. Occasionally she gets up and goes somewhere down the hall, but never does she come into Michael's room. She did come in when we pressed the buzzer, as his breathing took a turn for the worse and we thought he might be choking.

I could see several nurses at the station, all doing the same thing, and also talking to one another. But if you pass by the patients' rooms, you just see the patients, possibly with a visitor or two, but rarely do you see any medical staff in the rooms with them.

So just what do these nurses do? and what do they have so much to write about? if they are not checking on their patients very often, how can they have so much to report? And I don't think I am being too quick in my assessment, as I spent a lot of time in the same hospital with my mother when she lived with us. At one point, she was two weeks recovering from hip surgery, and then she spent another nine weeks in the geriatric assessment ward, and I spent several hours with her every afternoon. Same thing, no nurses coming in, no medical staff at all, but at the nursing station plenty of nurses all busily writing on report paper or talking on the telephone with God knows who.

As for doctors, they are only seen at early morning rounds, between 7 and 8. After that, you can't find a doctor unless you page one. In fact, one time I was called and told to come to the hospital to take my mother home after she had had a minor stroke. When I arrived, the nurse met me and told me to collect my mother's belongings and take her home. There was no doctor there to talk with me, so I insisted that I speak with one. The nurse said she would call the resident doctor, which means an intern. I was angry, and replied that I was not budging until I got to speak with a fully qualified doctor, not a student doctor. I was actually amazed when the nurse did call for the doctor and he arrived half an hour later to explain what had happened to my mother. If I hadn't insisted on seeing him, my mother would have been discharged and I would not have been told what had happened to her.

So in the past ten years, I have had a fair amount of contact with the hospital and its staff. And I am still left wondering, just what do those nurses do in the wards? They do not seem to be attending to patients; the time they spend with patients seems to be short and infrequent; even the staff who change sheets and towels and clean the bathrooms don't seem to be visible. One weekend, not one staff person entered my mother's room and she ended up tossing the dirty towels out of the room into the hall as she was disgusted with the treatment. Having been a nurse herself in England during the War, she was trained in bedside nursing and was appalled at the care she received her when she was on the receiving end.

Perhaps the nurses are writing lists of "12 nice words I said today" or perhaps they are making grocery lists or they could be making multiple charts of their hours, so that they can get a five-day weekend. I find it very hard to sympathize with them, when I hear them say that the 12-hour shifts are grueling, that they would much prefer 8 hour shifts. I guess 4 more hours of medical doodling is hard to take.

Update: Michael Pesche died last night, at about 2:30 am. He went very peacefully, without regaining consciousness. His best friend, Paul Brown had been with him through the evening until 10:30, at which time my husband Nick took over the next shift. I woke at 2:40 and took a cab to the hospital to relieve Nick, and arrived just after Michael had passed away. Paul arrived shortly after with his wife and another neighbour of Michael's. It was extremely touching to see Paul weep, he has been like a son to Michael for 28 years. Raking his leaves, shoveling his snow, popping in every morning to check on him, and in these last years managing his bank accounts and business affairs, driving him to the grocery store and now taking him to his final resting place. Michael was a devout Catholic, Paul has no religious affiliation, but I feel sure that Michael's prayers for Paul will be intensified now that he is on the other side of this life and that Paul will be added to the body of believers at some point in his life. With prayers of a man like Michael, you don't stand a chance.